Pierce the Sky
by Tuna Salad Sonnet
Summary: Aang can never decide if the vision is a dream or a nightmare. Either way, it haunts him. -Aang/Toph. Oneshot.-


**Dislcaimer: **I do not own _Avatar: The Last Airbender _or any related characters. This was written out of enjoyment of the series, and no profit is being made.

**_Ships:_** Toph/Aang.  
**_Warnings: _**Mild violence, vague implications at the end. Spoilers for Episode 37 - Lake Laogai, if by any chance you are just starting to watch this show.

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**Pierce the Sky**

"You ready?"

Aang looked down on the fortress. He pulled on his other glove and nodded. "Yeah."

Toph blinked into the wind, her bangs flowing past her eyes. Her arm and feet coverings were a pale gray-green, and her toes wiggled slightly in the small layer of loose dirt atop the cliffs.

They stand in silence, until she says, "Momo's on his way back. I can hear him."

Just as she had said, the flying lemur appeared. He flew in a circle around their heads once, before landing on Aang's shoulder. He was gnawing on something.

Aang took the fabric out of the lemur's mouth and observed. A green piece of heavy clothing fabric. Printed on it was a familiar emblem: a green circle with a yellow square in the center.

"What is it?" Toph asked.

"The King was right," Aang said, handing her the fabric. "The Dai Le are out here."

She ran the scrap of fabric through her fingers, letting the rough material scratch over her skin. "Great," she said. "I was hoping this was going to be a challenge." She threw the scrap over her shoulder and pulled a pair of black gloves out of the pocket on her close-fitting cloak.

Aang sighed as Toph pulled the gloves over her fingers and wiggled them in anticipation. "You did?"

"Well, duh."

He couldn't help smiling a little underneath his scarf. He knew that without Toph, he probably wouldn't have accepted the mission from the Earth King. Katara, Sokka, Zuko. He knew they were fully capable, but he had become so accustomed to having Toph as his partner that he wasn't sure what he'd feel if one of them suddenly came along for a mission.

"Alright," he bent his knees slightly, preparing. "Let's go."

Momo took to the sky as Toph leapt onto his back, legs wrapping securely around his middle.

And he jumped off the cliff.

Wind whistled past Toph's sensitive ears. She gritted her teeth as all of her sight disappeared in an instant, left behind on the rocks up above. She gripped Aang's dark brown clothes, trying to remember his reassuring words during their practice runs, but the night was silent.

Her sight came back for half-a-second as one of Aang's feet hit a stone pyre, before he launched back up into the air. That one blink of clear sight had told her they were half way down the cliff already and heading towards the back gate of the fortress. They were going to have to switch around soon.

She receives one blink, two blinks, three blinks, then four and five before Aang lands with both feet in a deep crouch on a boulder. She can almost feel the muscles in his legs tighten. In that split second, she lets her thought, her strength, her will, flow out of his planted feet into the earth and picks up two boulders.

Then he springs like a grasshopper high into the air.

She lets go of him, and for a second there is a horrible, wonderful moment of weightlessness in her core. Aang is there behind her, and he lifts his staff onto his shoulders, ready as they start to fall.

They are not falling. They are diving.

Momo circles around and then darts past her left shoulder, and they hear him latch onto the guards face. But by then, Toph's boulders have punched holes on either side of the gate, rendering him further useless.

It's at this point that the dream starts to speed up. Skipping through his adrenaline-driven actions and hastily conceived changes-of-plan. And he hates the dream because those moments were the most fun he had had improvising on a mission ever before.

He vaguely remembers a point in the infiltration where he was alone, without either Toph or Momo. But he manages to find Toph again before the two of them charge into the central room in all their sixteen-year-old glory.

"Long Feng!" they both recognize him at the same time. Toph through his posture, Aang through the cold smile the man gives him.

"Avatar Aang," he states. "When _did_ we meet last?"

"Oh, I remember," Toph spits. "When you murdered our friend down under that lake!"

"Ah yes," the man says, walking down the staircase in front of his throne, around the long meeting table where he has been planning attacks and assassinations. "Lake Laogai. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to top that one."

Aang points his staff at him, ready to tear apart the room as soon as he could. "You're not going to get the chance to find out."

He should've realized earlier that Long Feng could only be so calm if he had something to back him up. "Oh, I'm not so sure about that."

And of course, it's Toph that saves him.

She hears the strain of an incredibly thin rope being pulled.

"Aang, look out!" she shouts and lunges for him.

The dream slows, so he can revel in the disaster he's caused. The arrow cuts the air once, whistles, hits its mark perfectly and he knows who has fired it before Toph falls into his arms.

She gasps once and Long Feng's words are lost to him, as she takes in shaky breaths. He already knows anyway.

"You see, _boy,_ I'm afraid Princess Azula didn't count on me keeping some of her resources for myself. A pity really, that she didn't burn that paperwork she had given me. How ironic it is that so much power can be dealt with a brush and ink, hm?"

He's whispering things to her, trying to stop her eyes from staring at him in pain and shock. Long Feng's still talking and he won't stop.

He just keeps going. He shot Toph and he just won't-

Shut up, _shut up_-

"SHUT UP!" He shouts, and he can feel the panic, the fear, the _control_ slipping away as he clutches Toph to his chest.

He has to make sure she's safe.

And then he wakes up.

He fights to get his heartbeat under control, get his breath back as quickly as possible before the racket wakes the woman in the bed up.

Of course, he never does it quickly enough.

She opens her eyes, regarding him calmly through pale irises. "You had the dream again, didn't you?" she says.

"Yeah," he breathes.

She shifts over under the sheets and presses herself right up next to him. His eyes can't help but stray to her right shoulder, where the circle of skin is permanently darkened.

"It wasn't your fault," she whispers into his chest.

And he's never been more grateful to have her beside him.

So he finally says what they had been speaking in silence for who knows how long.

"I love you."

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**AN. **Not entirely pleased with this one, as I totally rushed in order to make the Taang Thursday deadline! Oi.

And yeah, those were Yuuyan archers. Awesome villains.

**Edit: **I completely forgot, but this was inspired by RiaKitsuneYoukai's awesome fanart, "Stealth". The link is in my profile.


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